


Family Day

by SegaBarrett



Category: Bates Motel (2013)
Genre: Backstory, F/M, Pine View, Shipswap Treat, domestic life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-22
Updated: 2016-04-22
Packaged: 2018-06-03 17:45:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6620248
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SegaBarrett/pseuds/SegaBarrett
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Norma and Alex visit Norman together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Family Day

**Author's Note:**

  * For [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts).



> Disclaimer: I do not own Bates Motel, and I make no money from this.

Alex Romero could remember being fourteen years old and taking the bus to the Clearwater Family Day.

The White Pine Bay public transportation system was non-existent, not surprisingly, so he would hitchhike until he arrived in Portland and then take a bus to the Clearwater Institute, a place that looked so pretty on the outside that it was hard to wrap one’s mind around the fact that people went there because they were, as Alex’s father used to say, “crazy”.

That was why Alex’s father never accompanied him. 

“Don’t need to be around a lot of crazy people,” he would say, and go back to reading the paper or whatever he had been doing to start the day.

So they would sit together on couches and talk about what Alex was doing in school, who his friends were and everything that went on in White Pine Bay, that he knew about at least. She would smile and act like this was a coffee date as opposed to a psychiatric hospital visit. They would promise to see each other soon. They would hug.

And then he would go home.

***

Alex let his eyes drift to the side, to watch Norma pressing her face against the car window. 

“What if he doesn’t want to see me? What if… what if this is all a mistake?” she was asking frantically.

“Norma. It’s going to be fine – he’ll want to see you, you’ll spend some time with him, and then we’ll come back home. I know how these things work.”

Norma turned her head and looked over at him.

“From… with your mother? Was she ever…?”

Alex nodded.

“In and out of them all through… well, middle through high school, I guess. Whatever was going on, it started pretty early on.”

Norma looked down at her hand, fiddling with her wedding ring. 

“Did they ever say what was wrong or…?”

“Depression, mainly, I think. They kept changing their mind about some of the other ones – Borderline Personality Disorder came up a few times.”

Norma looked at him.

“What’s that?”

Alex shrugged.

“Unstable moods and things like that.”

Norma raised an eyebrow.

“I wouldn’t know anything about any of those,” she said with a smirk.

“Of course not.”

***

Norma froze as they reached the gate that separated the Pine View Institute from the surrounding community. 

“I can’t do this.”

Alex put a hand on her shoulder.

“Yes, you can. We came all this way, didn’t we? We don’t have to stay long if you don’t want to.”

Norma’s lip quivered, but she nodded.

“I shouldn’t be this nervous. I mean, it’s only Norman. I know him better than I know anybody. I mean… he came out of me, for the love of God…” Alex put a hand on her shoulder and gently led her towards the gate. 

“Norma,” he said to her. “I’m right here.”

“Okay. We’re going. We’re going.”

***

“That man keeps looking at me,” Norma hissed at Alex, “Tell him to stop.”

“He’s just looking, Norma.” Alex reached out and put his hand on Norma’s shoulder. “He’s probably just jealous of me for having the most beautiful woman in the world on my arm.”

Norma snorted.

“Maybe the most beautiful woman in here – though I guess that’s a good thing. Female trouble tends to follow Norman wherever he goes. Or, well… not that kind of female trouble.”

Alex chuckled, and Norma looked back up at the hallway; she could sense Norman before she could see him and jumped up out of the embrace.

“Norman!” she ran to him, all of her anxiety and self-consciousness forgotten, and wrapped her arms around him. 

When she pulled back, Norman’s look was hard to read. He was staring at her and then past her, towards Alex.

“You remember Sheriff Romero, Norman… I… I have something to tell you, okay?”

***

The three of them – the new little family – were sitting outside on the lawn under the trees.

“Married,” Norman mused. “Really?”

“It’s a long story, Norman. But nothing is going to change. Will it, Alex?”

Alex made a small noise of assent. Everything already had changed.

Norman kicked a foot around in the grass, then seemed to rethink whatever he had been about to say.

“I’m happy for you. Congratulations. You seem happy,” he said at last in a somewhat monotone voice. Then he smiled and looked at Norma. “I really am.”

“Norman, I didn’t want to spring this on you while you were in here,” Norma began, “I mean, it’s not like I did this to hurt you.”

“I never said that you did,” Norman replied, “I’m glad that you put me in here. I’m learning all about myself.”

“Oh?” Norma asked. Alex could hear her breath begin to turn shallow, her heart begin to beat faster, or maybe it was all in his head.

“Yeah. And about you. About us.”

Norma’s voice was high-pitched.

“That’s… good.”

“Norman,” Alex cut in. “Why don’t you show us what there is to do in here?” There as a moment where they locked eyes, and it felt as if they were two elks, about to lock horns and fight under one or the other either retreated or tore his opponent to bits. 

“Sure. Okay.”

Norman rose from his spot and brushed off his pants. 

Alex noticed, out of the corner of his eyes, a young woman balancing a baby on her knee and smiling through obvious tears.

He blinked.

Norman cleared his throat.

“So the croquet field is over this way…”

***

“You haven’t said much since we left,” Norma said to him as they exited the car and began to make their way up the endless stairs.

“I don’t say much usually,” Alex pointed out, and Norma laughed.

“It’s nice. Lets me talk my head off and not have to fight to be heard.”

“Oh, somehow I get the feeling you’d find a way, even if I talked a mile a minute.” Alex stopped abruptly and looked at her. She stopped, too, and stepped forward, draping her arms around his middle. 

“Thank you for doing this. For me. All of it, I mean.”

Alex wanted to come back with something witty, something about how everybody wished they could do nice things for beautiful women all the time, or maybe something that would lead them into the bedroom. But he found himself simply looking into her eyes, almost staring, drinking her in, in some way.

“It’s nothing,” he said at last. 

Norma Bates smiled at him.

“Let me make you something. You must be starving.”

***

“Do you have a girlfriend, Alex?”

Alex took a deep breath and looked up at her, two pairs of brown eyes meeting each other.

“Nah. No girlfriend, Mom.”

“You should get a girlfriend. You spend too much time alone.”

“Like who?” Alex asked. “I’m not really into any of the girls in school.”

“You just wait.” Mrs. Romero tapped the table in front of her and smiled widely. “You’ll meet the right one, and you’ll bring her home to me.”

Alex bit his lip.

She was talking about home again.

“I’ll find somebody. I’ll bring her to you – I promise.”

***

“It was a nice place,” Norma said as they cleared the table, moving all the dishes to the sink. “He seems… almost happy there. I miss him, though. It feels… like everything’s changed. Not that it’s bad, exactly, just… different. Like I’m sort of walking in a dream, or like everything moved on me.”

“I know the feeling.”

Alex reached out and intertwined his fingers with Norma’s. 

“Let’s go to bed.”

“It’s only six o’clock.”

Alex grinned.

“Nice thing about the kids being away. We can do whatever we want…”

Norma pressed her nose against his.

“You called them ‘the kids’,” she said and laughed. “Okay. Let’s go. But if someone comes to the front desk, you’re checking them in – I plan to be out like a light.”

“You need my help with that, Mrs. Romero?”

Norma laughed with him all the way up the stairs.

He was thinking about home again.


End file.
